By Mark Longyen
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the North Central Development Commission, NCDC, Dr Cyril Tsenyil, has promised that the commission would engage in intervention projects in priority sectors across the entire north-central’s six states, and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
Sen. Simon Lalong, member of the Senate Committee on NCDC, during the NCDC’s budget defence.
He made the pledge when he and the NCDC Management Team appeared before the Senate Committee on NCDC to defend the commission’s budget at the National Assembly on Tuesday in Abuja.
Tsenyil’s pledge follows the approval of the 140 billion naira 2025 budget by the Senate Committee on NCDC for the recently established Commission.
L-R: Sen. Ireti Kingibe and Sen. Abdul Ningi, during the NCDC budget defence.
The NCDC boss expressed the appreciation of the commission’s management to the Senate for playing a critical role in creating the NCDC, and for approving the budget, which according to him, comprises 100 billion naira for capital projects, and 40 billion for recurrent and overhead expenditure.
Tsenyil said the NCDC would first enagage stakeholders and then carry out needs assessment to identify key areas where it would focus its attention on intervention projects across the six NCDC member states, and the FCT.
“The Act establishing the Commission gives it mandate to handle priority areas, including infrastructure development, security, agriculture and mining, education, healthcare, road construction, resettlement of displaced persons, and environmental rehabilitation, among others,” he said.
According to him, the NCDC also intends to establish coordinating offices across its entire member states, as well as a zonal office in Abuja.
He further said that the commission would begin the process of recruiting its pioneer staff members, as soon as the necessary approvals were obtained from the relevant authorities.
Sen. Titus Zam, Chairman of the Senate Committee on NCDC, said the Committee had closely scrutinised the commission’s budget, and approved it after making observations and receiving satisfactory clarifications from the management.
The lawmaker said the Committee would like to see inclusive implementation of projects across the entire member states’ zone and federal constituencies within it in line with the Federal Government’s desire to address critical development issues.
He commended the NCDC management for what he described as a convincing presentation, adding that the committee would carry out effective oversight so that the approved budget was deployed to strengthen development interventions across the region.
